Existing centrifugal blood pumps are large and waste electrical energy. Accordingly, they are not well suited for portable use. Existing ventricular assist devices (“VADs”) do not scale down in size so that they can not be used in the pediatric application. These pumps have elaborate configurations of the inlet and outlet geometries to reduce turbulence, in order to provide high flow at acceptable rates of hemolysis. These complex features, when scaled down in size, no longer act to reduce turbulence but instead act to increase shear forces. The inlet and outlet of this pump design have a wide, continuous (uninterrupted) cross section without complex surface features, allowing the pump to be scaled down in size while still retaining acceptable performance